Teams don’t tank. General managers do, but Vancouver Canucks boss Jim Benning is not genetically pre-disposed to lose on purpose.

The GM reiterated this week, as he has all of this season, that the objective remains to make the National Hockey League playoffs and the Canucks will not weaken themselves to slide down the standings and up the draft order for what could be a historically strong, top-five draft class in Buffalo in June.

Remember, Benning said before his first game in charge last season: “I’m not a patient person. We expect to win because we hate losing. I can’t watch losing hockey. I can’t.”

And yet he watched plenty of losing hockey in the first half of this season as the Canucks lost by accident.

Even after edging the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 on Wednesday for their fifth win in eight games, the Canucks had the second-fewest non-shootout wins in the NHL — just 13 out of 41 games. They were 24th out of 30 teams in scoring (2.37 goals per game), had been shut out five times and scored two or fewer goals 25 times. The Canucks were 21st in goals against (2.76), 25th on the power play (16.7 per cent), 23rd in penalty killing (78.8) and last in faceoff percentage (45.3). Vancouver won three times during a 16-game nosedive that began Nov. 4, and won just three games at home in the first two months of the season.

Yes, they endured a brutal first-half schedule, for which they are partly to blame, and at one point had seven regulars out of their lineup because of injuries.

Still, by any measure other than the standings, the Canucks had a poor first half. At 16-16-9 heading into tonight’s home game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Canucks are eight points off last year’s pace and should already be out of the playoff race and in the Auston Matthews draft sweepstakes. Their .500 winning percentage was tied for 23rd in the NHL and after Wednesday’s win Vancouver was only eight points clear of last-overall Columbus and two points ahead of a top-five draft position.

Yet, the standings in the Pacific Division showed the Canucks somehow clinging to third place and the final playoff spot.

In a Western Conference in which no playoff qualifier has had fewer than 91 points since the 2004-05 lockout (we’re pro-rating the 48-game 2012-13 season for Gary Bettman’s latest labour war), it’s possible someone from the Pacific will make the Stanley Cup tournament in April with 82 to 86 points.

So the Canucks, despite all that first-half losing, are in the playoff race and probably will be for a while.

“Our division has been crazy,” goalie Jacob Markstrom, who has been excellent as a fill-in for injured starter Ryan Miller, said before the Canucks practised on Friday. “Normally, if you have this amount of points, you’re out of the playoffs. But we’re right in the mix.”

“(The record) is not what we wanted,” captain Henrik Sedin said. “But we had a really tough schedule, we haven’t played nearly as good as we can, and we’re still in it. It’s tough to say if the first half has been good or bad, but we’re in the playoff race and that’s all we care about.”

Asked if he’d rather retire or tank, Sedin actually couldn’t understand the question or premise. After an explanation, he said: “We want to make the playoffs. I think it’s very important for the young guys to go through that, and anytime you make the playoffs you have a chance. So we’re going for it.”

Draftists, despair.

In assessing Canucks players, we’ve included only skaters who have played at least half of the first 41 games:

FIRST-RATE IN FIRST HALF

At age 35 and after more than 1,100 NHL games apiece — and with the best defencemen in the world trying to batter them each night for the last 10 years — Danny and Hank Sedin motor along impervious to age or injury, still among the most consistent and elite scorers on Earth. Daniel has 38 points in 41 games and with 17 goals is on pace to hit 30 for the first season since Duncan Keith tried to decapitate him with an elbow four years ago. Henrik has 34 points in 39 games despite playing with a significant, undisclosed injury. Under the circumstances, this is some of the best and most vital hockey the twins have conjured.

Markstrom cleared waivers on his way to the minors last season and was still more suspect than prospect when GM Benning chose to keep him over folk hero Eddie Lack when trading a goalie last June. But the 25-year-old Swede finally looks like an NHL puck-stopper — and possible successor as starter to Miller — with a .919 save rate in 14 first-half appearances.

Winger Jannik Hansen, injured late in Wednesday’s game, has 12 goals and 22 points playing mostly with the Sedins and could blow through his career highs of 16 goals and 39 points, while rookie defenceman Ben Hutton (minus-8 in 17:45 of average ice time) has dipped since a strong October, but remains far ahead of projections since the 22-year-old straight out of college hockey was supposed to play in the American Hockey League this season.

Alex Edler and Chris Tanev provide steady, first-pairing defence night after night. And we don’t care what anybody thinks, fourth-liner Adam Cracknell averaging 12:32 of NHL playing time (and contributing eight points in 34 games) is remarkable for a 30-year-old who has spent most of his career in the minors.

OKAY, BUT MORE PLEASE

Six-million-dollar-man Ryan Miller was brilliant in October (2.16 average, .923 save rate), poor in November (2.96 and .898) before getting injured in December. When he returns next week, Miller needs to be more consistent and perform to his career average (2.59 and .915) to repay what Benning has invested in money and reputation.

Buzzsaw winger Derek Dorsett is a favourite of coach Willie Desjardins, but with just three goals, a minus-7 rating and even-strength Corsi of 45 per cent through 41 games, he needs to provide more than energy for the ice time (12:45) and money ($2.65 million) he is being given.

Free-agent acquisition Matt Bartkowski needs to be more consistent, but has provided a little physicality on defence to go with his wheels. If he ever figures out what to do with the puck as he dashes through the neutral zone, look out. The novelty of 19-year-old centre Jared McCann making the Canucks has worn off. The teenager possesses loads of offensive potential, but four points in his last 25 games is dismal, and his faceoff win rate (33 per cent) is debilitating.

Among veterans, defenceman Dan Hamhuis appeared to be finding his game after a slow — literally — start when the puck found him and he was injured by a slapshot to the face one month ago. Tough winger Brandon Prust hasn’t looked like the same player since missing 11 games with an ankle injury in November. No one expects Prust to drive the offence, but he is pointless in 18 of his 19 games and his base Corsi of 44.4 per cent is the worst among Canucks who have played at least 20 games.

SO FAR, SO NOT GOOD ENOUGH

After 31 goals and 63 points in his first season as a Canuck, winger Radim Vrbata hits the halfway point with 10 goals and 18 points and is minus-14. Sure, he misses playing with Henrik Sedin and is suffering offensively with a rookie or sophomore centre, but the 34-year-old hasn’t looked engaged some nights.

Alex Burrows and Chris Higgins aren’t quite in the same position, but both are well-paid veteran wingers with tons of experience and guile, and whose offensive decline (12 points in 39 games for Burrows, three in 24 for Higgins) has hurt the Canucks. They still work their butts off, but Burrows has one point in 19 games and Higgins one in 21.

Yannick Weber is supposed to be an offensive defenceman, but four points in 32 games isn’t nearly enough to compensate for the 5-10 blue-liner’s defensive liabilities. He is minus-12.

Speedy linemates Bo Horvat, 20, and Sven Baertschi, 23, are having to learn the NHL game under pressure and significant expectations, so we’re inclined to cut them some slack, especially since they’ve been much better the last three weeks. But 11 goals between them halfway through the season isn’t nearly enough.

Horvat, forced into a prime role by the long-term injury to centre Brandon Sutter, is an unfathomable minus-19.

• • •

“I don’t know if I look at (the first 41 games) like surviving, but it’s been tough,” Markstrom summarized.

“For us, for sure our mindset is we’re not happy where we are. We know we can do better. We’ve got to go.”

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